Every Coupe du Monde has had its fair share of surprises and so-called “coup de théâtres”.
But will this particular Mondial hold even more surprises for us than ever before?

Consider these games; almost no day has passed so far without a surprising result:

* Sud Afrique contre le Mexique (South Africa vs. Mexico), last Friday: 1-1.
* L’Angleterre contre les États-Unis (England vs. USA), last Saturday: 1-1.
* L’Italie contre le Paraguay (Italy vs. Paraguay), last Monday: 1-1.
* Le Brésil contre La Corée du Nord (Brazil vs. North Korea), last Tuesday: 2-1.
* L’Espagne contre la Suisse (Spain vs. Switzerland), last Wednesday: 0-1.
* La France contre le Mexique (France vs. Mexico), yesterday: 0-2.
* L’Allemagne contre la Serbie (Germany vs. Serbia), today: 0-1.
*L’Algerie contre l’Angleterre (Algeria vs. England), also today: 0-0.
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The first surprise, nous l’avons déjà évoquée (we already evoked it), was the match nul (the draw) between l’équipe Sud Africaine (the South African team) and le Mexique. The South Africans had actually failed to qualify to la Coupe Africaine des Nations (The African Nations Cup) which was organized in Angloa a few months ago, and playing against them was therefore expected to be somewhat of un petit picnic, especially for a team of Mexico’s caliber.

Speaking of le Mexique, even if many had thought les Bleus would still be les favoris against them, especially that the Mexican team had beaucoup de difficulté keeping up with the South Africans, the manque de préparation (lack of preparation) of les Bleus, which cost them countless golden opportunities to score, was perhaps la raison principale behind their poor performance against a very determined Mexican Squad. Had the Bleus managed to score at least one goal since their first game, they would probably have played differently afterwords, since le côté psychologique is crucial in such competitions. Malheureusement (Unfortunately), that did not happen.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGq7QTq6lY8

In the Groupe ‘F‘, our amis Italiens, who are -do you still need to be reminded?- les champions en titre (the title holders), most likely felt at first that le tirage au sort des groupes (the group draw) was extremely lucky in their favor… Little did they expect that they would tie against Paraguay. In fact, they had to work really hard in order to score the equalizer against them!

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Résilience coréenne et réalisme brésilien (Korean resilience and Brazilian realism):

Yet another surprise of this Coupe du Monde was l’équipe de la Corée du Nord, who played avec beaucoup de détermination against the magnificent team of Brazil. Not only were the Koreans able to impose a logical draw 0-0 during the entire first half, but even after receiving two goals, their characteristic resilience was awarded by a very fine goal, and they even threatened the Brasilieros with a draw…

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znRlsL4CICU

Deux grosses surprises: La Suisse et la Serbie !

Who can honestly say: “Je l’ai vu venir” (“I saw it coming”)? The European champions, l’Espagne, beaten by les Suisses !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3XYazu_ht8

And who can honestly say that they saw the Germans beaten by Serbia, after they managed to crush Australia 4-0, especially that Serbia had lost its first game and did not show much efficacité (efficiency) before today’s game?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znRlsL4CICU

L’Angleterre vs. L’Algérie:

Les Anglais were already under a lot of pressure for conceding a draw against les États-Unis (the United States), when the freshly-introduced “Jabulani” ball “magiquement” eluded the English keeper’s poignée (grip) to go au fond des filets (deep into the net)!

Things didn’t go so well for England today either, since they expected an easy win against a team that was also under tremendous pressure to prove its mérite for being in the Mondial, namely Algeria!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMTcaux8iYM

Not unlike the US draw achieved against England, many people in Algeria (and in France too, as a matter of fact) will be celebrating tonight the draw against les Camarades of Wayne Rooney, which was the result of a great deal of determination: Le Foot, c’est surtout dans le mental ! (It’s mostly in the mind!)

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Coming up soon: Keep your eyes on the following games, you may see some grosses surprises there as well:

– Le Japan contre la Hollande: Demain !
– L’Italie contre la Nouvelle Zélande: Dimanche !
– Le Portugal contre la Corée du Nord: Lundi !
– Le Ghana contre l’Allemagne: Mercredi !
and finally:
– La Slovénie contre l’Angleterre: Mercredi aussi !
– Le Chili contre l’Espagne: Vendredi prochain  (Next DMCV)!